Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2003-11-16
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 351 (2004) L24
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted by MNRAS Letters. v2: Added table summarizing H2-bearing DLA properties, added figure showing [Fe
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07958.x
Spectroscopic observations of distant quasars have resulted in the detection of molecular hydrogen in intervening damped Lyman-alpha absorption clouds (DLAs). We use observations compiled from different experimental groups to show that the molecular hydrogen abundance exhibits a dramatic increase over a cosmological time period corresponding to 13% to 24% of the age of the universe. We also tentatively show that the heavy element abundances in the same gas clouds exhibit a faster and more well-defined cosmological evolution compared to the general DLA population over the same time baseline. We argue that this latter point is unsurprising, because the general DLA population arises in a wide variety of galaxy types and environments, and thus a spans broad range of ISM gas-phases and abundances at the same cosmic time. DLAs exhibiting H2 absorption may therefore circumvent this problem, efficiently identifying a narrower class of objects, and provide a more sensitive probe of cosmological chemical evolution.
Carswell Robert F.
Curran Stephen J.
Murphy Michael T.
Webb John K.
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